Bentley: Alabama won't set up state insurance exchange

Gov. Robert Bentley said today that Alabama will not expand Medicaid as it now exists and he won't set up a state insurance exchange under the federal health care law.

By Dana BeyerleMontgomery Bureau Chief

MONTGOMERY | Gov. Robert Bentley said Tuesday that Alabama will not create a state insurance exchange under the federal health care law nor will it expand Medicaid as it now exists.Speaking in Birmingham, Bentley said both options are too expensive. “I am not going to set up a state-based exchange that will create a tax burden of up to $50 million on the people of Alabama,” Bentley said.A health exchange that allows shopping for health insurance is a component of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare.Bentley said the “Affordable Care Act is neither affordable nor does it actually improve health care.” He said he’s intent on challenging it along with other like-minded governors. He plans to attend a Republican Governors Association meeting this week.“Congress and the president have said they want to work together to solve the fiscal crisis facing this country, and I suggest they start with this health care bill,” he said in a statement.Bentley has said that the Affordable Care Act is “the single worst piece of legislation to be passed” in his lifetime.The governor also said he won’t expand Medicaid “under the current structure that exists” because Alabama “simply cannot afford it.”He established a commission to reform current Medicaid financing and delivery. The Legislature has a reform committee, also.Medicaid costs the state $600 million this year and will require at least another $100 million next fiscal year unless changes are made.Bentley had until Friday to tell the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services whether Alabama will apply for a state exchange or let the federal government create one. The deadline for applying is Dec. 14.Bentley argues that while the federal government will begin paying 100 percent of an expanded Medicaid program in 2014, by 2017 Alabama will have to start paying a share.“We’re disappointed that the governor is rejecting both of the major components of state participation in the ACA, but we’re hopeful Alabamians won’t lose out entirely,” said Jim Carnes, a spokesman for Arise Citizens Action Project.Carnes said that at least 350,000 Alabamians would have been able to enroll in an expanded Medicaid, a joint state-federal medical coverage plan.House Minority Leader Craig Ford, D-Gadsden, said Bentley is playing politics by appearing to fight Obamacare. He said the state is leaving millions of dollars on the table by not expanding Medicaid and “more importantly, we are leaving thousands of Alabamians without health care.”House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said the Nov. 6 vote on an “anti-Obamacare” constitutional amendment “clearly signaled they agree with these beliefs.”Hubbard said Bentley and about two dozen other governors want to “push back against” Obamacare.“Implementing Obamacare would bloat the size of government and place Alabama on the same path to fiscal disaster that the federal government is already traveling at break-neck speed,” Hubbard said.Bentley has asked constitutional law experts for advice on the health care bill and legal options the state has, his legislative director, Blaine Galliher, said on a social media site.“I have been speaking individually and in group settings with governors from all over the country, and I feel that a significant number of these governors will take a similar stand,” Bentley said. “That will send a clear signal to all of our elected leaders in Washington that the health care bill should be changed.”